A/N: I am loving the response to this fanfiction! Sorry I haven't been around lately, but I've had a lot on my plate recently, such as meeting my father for the first time in twenty years, as well as the rest of my family. I swear, I've had a constant stream of siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts, and other relatives to meet and enjoy time with for close to three months already. It's awesome, but time-consuming, and I haven't had any time to write for about that long. So I apologize.
But anyway, I've decided to include the HoO series in this fanfiction because I want Leo to be in this fic. He's my favorite character so far...might change after Mark of Athena, but I don't think it will. Anyway, here it is!
Disclaimer: I own naught but my own posessions.
Chapter 2: The Battle for Olympus
So right now, godhood isn't looking too good.
Hera came up with some harebrained scheme that involved getting the Greek Camp Halfblood and the Roman Camp Jupiter to form an alliance and take on the Giants, a race of BAMFs who were spawned by my grandmother, Gaea, for the sole purpose of taking out the gods and getting revenge for the Titans' downfall. Her plan did work somewhat, as we've got a whole army of demigods, both Greek and Roman, to fight against the host of monsters and Earthborn the Giants have gathered.
Only downside is that, at the moment, that army of half-bloods and all the gods are fighting a losing battle on the very slopes of the true Mount Olympus. No matter how many monsters are destroyed, they reform battle-ready in mere minutes afterwards, and Gaea, with her supreme powers over the ground below us, keeps hindering the earth-bound Olympian fighters, making it harder for them to move.
As I blast the ever-living shit out of the Minotaur for what has to be the millionth time, I watch as Polyphemus, head of the Giants' army, begins hurling bolts of lightning at the mountain which is the gods' ancestral home, destroying good chunks of it with each strike.
Now, seeing as how I'm a new god, dear old gran-gran didn't have time to create a Giant specifically designed to combat me, I'm a free agent to do what I please in this battle. So, after sending a scything burst of icicle spears at the phalanx of Hyperboreans trying to charge me, I fling myself toward the king of the Giants and give him a dead-leg to remember.
Howling in pained fury, Porphyrion rounds on me, his rather unorthodox spear swinging at the space I'd been moments ago.
"You will regret that, whelp!" he roars at me, hurling bolt after bolt of super-charged energy at me, while I dodge, duck, dip, dive, and...dodge my way around them while taking the minute opportunities between to open up a few nasty cuts with Riptide. They leak a bit of golden ichor before closing up moments after I create them, making me snarl in frustration.
"Quit leaching off Gaea, Momma's boy!" I snap, unleashing a torrent of water into his midsection, doubling him up for just enough time to allow me to drive my knee straight into his nose.
Ichor spills from his nostrils for several seconds before subsiding. I feel the ground around me begin to creep up my legs, but with an annoyed stomp, I quell my domain and push off into the air. It may be a bit spiteful on my part, but I conjure up a grand piano above Porphyrion, which drops onto his head, shattering on impact. It did basically nothing to him, but I feel just a little better because of it.
Removing the wood and ivory debris with a swipe of his massive hand, Porphyrion looses an expanding shockwave that scorches the ground as it passes. I quickly create a U-shaped stream of water and loop it around myself so I'm standing in the middle of the dip. The lightning strikes the leading end of the hyper-conductive substance, flowing into the water. I send the other end straight at Porphyrion, and the electricity follows the path I laid for it, slamming into the Giant king and sending him flying back.
To my surprise (and chagrin), he regains his feet quickly, laughing as he does. "Stupid child! I was born to vanquish Zeus! Lightning does not affect me at all!"
His laughter is cut short when a silver arrow fletched with the feathers of a swan seemingly sprouts from the side of his head. He screams in rage and pulls it out as Artemis the Huntress appears by my side and murmurs, "Arrows seem to have the desired effect."
"Hey, Arty! I was wondering when you'd show up!" I pipe up with a grin. "How was your fight with Gration?"
Her bow connects solidly with the back of my head. "I was obviously the victor, as I am still alive," she answers curtly. "And my name is Artemis, not Arty." Methinks she doth protest too much, no?
"I know," I answer back. "I saw Piper charmspeak that dumbass just long enough for you to plant an arrow in his neck. Wonderful shot, by the way."
"Of course it was a wonderful shot. It was I who loosed the arrow, after all."
Rolling my eyes, I say, "How about we finish off this ass-hat before anything else, shall we?"
"We shall," Artemis agrees, nocking an arrow faster than the blink of an eye. My grin turns into a smirk as I ready Riptide and charge the Giant.
This time, the battle is definitely one-sided. Now, every time Porphyrion tries to attack with his ranged lightning attacks, he is interrupted by Artemis' arrows, and these pauses are enough for me to cut into him. But he's too quick for me to land a serious blow, and all the wounds I am able to inflict only heal a few moments afterward.
Just as Artemis managed to embed an arrow directly into Porphyrion's forehead, the ground shakes violently, and a portion of Olympus crumbles, separating me from Porphyrion and the stone shelf Artemis is utilizing as a sniping point.
I try to move, but the ground beneath me becomes quicksand, and as I struggle against Gaea's overwhelming power with my own comparitively weak control, I see Porphyrion charge up his most powerful energy bolt yet and send it hurdling through the air toward Artemis.
She begins to move, but Gaea holds her fast, and she is unable to dodge or otherwise move out of the way.
As I see the raging stream of pure power heading towards Artemis, something in me snaps, and somehow, miraculously, I feel Gaea's power wane at an alarming rate. I quickly grasp my control over the ground and snap it like I'm shaking off a rug.
A sharp rumble fills the air, and the earth around us rolls forward like a tidal wave and crushes a large portion of the monster army. But I'm not looking that way. I'm already moving toward Artemis.
With all the speed granted to my by my godliness, I just manage to place myself between the goddess and the bolt, which strikes me in the chest and sends me crashing into Olympus, causing yet another rockslide.
My last thought before the darkness overtakes me is, Oh, she owes me big-time for this...
[THIS IS A PAGE-BREAK] ARTEMIS
The foolish idiot! How dare he take the deadly bolt for me, as though I were some helpless damsel to rescue? Not that I am ungrateful (far from it, to be truthful), but I do not need to be taken care of, least of all by a man...
The forces of Olympus, having been given a brief respite by the wave of land Perseus had created before his...actions, groan in dismay upon witnessing one of the strongest fighters brought low.
At first, some believe that he's just down for a bit, but I think otherwise. For Olympus' sake, half the mountain fell on him. If he's alive after taking a fully-charged energy blast from the Giant King and being buried under Mount Olympus, then I'll be very impressed.
After the initial shock wears off, the idiot's ex-girlfriend, the daughter of Athena called Annabeth, rallies the demigod troops, and screams bloody defiance toward the Giants and their forces.
"FOR PERCY!" she calls, and the demigods, both Roman and Greek, echo her caterwaul and charge forward in a living wall of righteous fury, colliding with the monster army with renewed vigor.
Polyphemus strikes out at me once more, and I leap away, creating distance between us so as to keep out of reach of his terrible strength.
Against Gration, I had a difficult enough time surviving. But fighting Porphyrion, King of the Giants, is borderline suicide. This is the reason I felt it necessary to come to the aid of the God of Fools and Idiots.
Firing arrow after arrow at the easy target of Porphyrion's head, I wish I had someone to pray to for protection.
[THIS IS ALSO A PAGE-BREAK] PERCY
Note to self: never jump in front of a bolt of lightning, no matter how cool it might make me look.
I regain consciousness and open my eyes to more darkness. My godly powers tell me that I'm several dozen yards below the surface of Mount Olympus, and with a quick thought, the ground beneath me pushes me to the top.
I'm on a large, rocky outcropping high above the battle, and I take the brief opportunity to check on the others. Frank and Hazel, two of the demigods the prophecy pertains to, have already fallen in battle, one sacrificing himself in order to help his father, Ares, kill the Giant Eurytus, while the other flew into a berserker's rage upon seeing her beloved fall and was overrun by a cohort of dracenae.
Leo, Piper, and Jason, three more children of prophecy, are taking on the Nemian Lion of all things,while Annabeth and Will Solace, the last two of the Seven Champions of Olympus, are commanding the demigod forces expertly.
The elder gods are worn out from their battles against the Giants, most notably Zeus is spent from fighting, and failing, against Porphyrion.
All in all, not a good sign. The monsters keep respawning like a freakin' newbie in an online Call of Duty free-for-all match, and we still have Porphyrion to deal with, as well as Ephialtas and Mimas, who are stil fighting against Apollo and Hephaestus respectively.
It's time I took things into my own hands. So I do what I feel is the only logical choice and raise my voice to the sky.
"Porphyrion, you stupid, ugly cock-sucking son of a cunt!" If that doesn't grab his attention, I don't know what will.
Fortunately, it's enough, and the big bastard turns around with death in his snow-white eyes.
"I challenge you to a fight! One-on-one. Winner gets to decide what to do with Olympus. Loser dies. Whaddya say, limp dick?"
My comment only further fuels his towering rage. "I accept, Perseus Jackson! By the River Styx, so mote it be!"
A clap of thunder echoes across the stormy skies as the fish takes the bait. Now all I have to do is figure out a way to kill something that requires two beings to slay in a one-on-one fight.
The remaining two Gigantes pause in their fights, and the clashing armies halt and create a wide circle around myself and Porphyrion.
We stare each other down, he trying to intimidate me while I stare lovingly into his eyes, as though he were the one thing in the universe that I lived for, trying to unnerve the hell out of him.
It actually works, and he gives me a strange look partway between disgust and curiosity, and I take the opportunity to leap forward and toe kick him in the solar plexus, driving the wind from him and doubling him up. Unfortunately, he catches my foot on instinct with one hand and shoves his spear forward.
I jerk to the side, but only enough so that the spear-tip slices into the meat of my side, spilling my ichor and hurting like a mucka-lucka. Twisting, I free my foot and whip my other one around like a mace, driving it home into the side of Porphyrion's head while stabbing out at his midsection with Riptide.
Dazed, Porphyrion staggers back, bleeding for a quick second while his eyes readjust from the rattling I gave his skull. But he regains his composure just as fast as usual, his mother healing him as usual.
Damn it! This is getting me nowhere, and it's getting me there agonizingly slowly. I wish I could just get stoned and...
...wait a minute. I just got an idea.
[THIS IS A PAGE-BREAK] LEO
"LEO!"
I jump, startled at hearing Percy call out my name. The last time he'd called me like that was just before he and I killed the Giant Hippolytus with a gigantic spike of superheated stone. It was pretty badass, if I do say so myself, and I figure that it's about time to prepare myself to do something similar again.
"WHAT!" I shout back, watching as Percy raises his hands dramatically. In the gianormous circle that he and Porphyrion have been fighting, plants begin to sprout and grow at alarming speed, and a dense, potent scent fills the air as what I can only describe as an ass-ton of cannabis erupts all around us.
"LET'S GET HIGH AS FUCK!" Percy hollers in response. I only have to think about this for one-one millionth of a second to understand and grin.
Beauty Queen was kneeling heavily, favoring the leg where her thigh was cut deep into by that beast of a Nemian Lion's left claw. I'm going to be making that claw into a back-scratcher after this is all said and done (I'm not kidding; I cut off the whole paw, and it is now resting in the pocket dimension of my tool-belt). Jason had few wounds, being the great fighter that he is, but he, like every friggin' demigod here, was bone-tired.
They both stared at me in confusion, but I simply lit my hands on fire, and kept on adding to the flame until it was a roaring bonfire between my palms. I relished the feel of controlling it for a moment before thrusting forward, keeping on with the fire until it was a towering inferno, rushing across the field of weed and burning all in its path.
Clouds of bone-white smoke filled the air all around us, and almost on cue, every being great and small began coughing as though their lungs were trying to escape out of their mouths.
I can almost feel the smoke slowly rolling its dainty tendrils into my brain and working its magic and inhale deeply before falling into a convulsing fit of coughs that elevates me even more.
A strong gust of wind sends the cloud of marijuana smoke to the east, where it'll probably get the entire Mediterranean stoned out of their minds, and Porphyrion and Percy reappear.
Percy already always looks faded, so there's no change in him, but Porphyrion looks like he's only a few hundred miles away from Jupiter.
"Wh-what did you do to me, you brat?" he sort of grumbles. It's not his usual booming voice, but I don't think his sound box has a low volume setting.
"Nothin' compared to what I'm about to do," Percy responds with a grin. Then he blurs, and speeds toward the dumbfounded Giant King and extends his leg, planting his foot squarely into Porphyrion's Giant balls.
There's a moment of absolute silence when anything with male genitalia cringes in sympathy, then Porphyrion screams. Like...he...he screams. I can't put it any other way. It hurt my ears, and judging by their reaction, it hurt everyone else's ears, too.
Without any sort of pause, Percy swings down his sword, Riptide, and lops off Porphyrion's head and stomps down on it, smashing the Giant's skull like an overripe melon.
It's morbidly fascinating, and I can't look away. With a triumphant holler, Percy throws Riptide at Mimas, who is just as stoned as his brother, catching him right in the heart.
And then Thalia, oh, beautiful, terrible, Thalia Grace raises her bow and lets an arrow fly. It buries itself deep into the Bane of Hephaestus' eye, and he looses an almighty bellow before the arrow explodes, and I grin. Thalia was using the explosive arrows I'd made for her. I feel a swell of pride in my chest as Mimas' head blows apart just like Porphyrion's did.
With a yell, the battle resumes, and Jason and I guard Piper while she recovers, content in the fact that we've won. The monsters know it, and Ephialtes knows it, too. But most importantly, Gaea knows it.
There's a gigantic bang that batters against my already wounded eardrums, and Ephialtes vanishes. The monster army falters, and then begins to flee. Many of the demigods and satyrs roar in victory and begin to chase after them, but I simply slump down to the ground beside Piper, and Jason does the same a second later.
"We did it, guys," I say with a tired grin. Jason sighs in agreement while Piper gifts me with her million-dollar smile.
"That we did, Leo," she answers. "That we did."
A/N: Lame ending, I know, but I'm pressed for time, and I wrote this in about three hours in one sitting, backed by a few bowls of the greatest plant ever (as evidenced by its almighty victory over the Gigantes). Anyway, I'm tired, so I'm going to sleep. I hope you like it, and review if you want to. I don't want to force you to do anything.